We spent the afternoon on Saturday trying to beat the approaching rainy week and get the field in slightly better shape. The new New Entry farm manager, Matt, had already plowed the field twice, so our goal was to mark the field, to determine where the beds were going to go and rake together a 3 foot wide raised bed and plant our potatoes and onion sets. They start out looking like this:
With a little luck (and some hard work), they’ll turn into 82 potato plants and 240 onions. These 10 pounds of potatoes and less than 3 pounds of onion sets should transform into a couple hundred pounds of vegetables. (I hope.)
Even though the field had been plowed, it was still hard work shaping the bed by hand. Anywhere the tractor had passed over the soil showed the effects of compaction, and we had to break it up with a fork and hoe.